Bill Shorten and Labor’s policy to abolish negative gearing will take a sledgehammer to house prices and increase rents.

Time and again they refuse to come clean on the impact.

Economic spokesperson Andrew Leigh is the latest Labor frontbencher who refused to say how much their policy will send house prices plummeting.

When pressed, Mr Leigh fell to pieces on 3AW yesterday, laughably claiming their sledgehammer proposal had nothing to do with housing values.

QUESTION: How much would you like to see house prices go down by?

ANDREW LEIGH: – this is not a policy to drive house prices down.

Independent analysis in a RiskWise Property Research and Wargent Advisory report has an answer for Mr Leigh – they project that under Labor, the value of home assets would plummet by as much as 12 per cent.

As much as 12 per cent.

Labor can’t answer this simple question on house prices because the answer is they want to take a sledgehammer to the housing market. They want to hurt everyone in the process but don’t want to talk about the negative consequences of their decision.

Labor seek to demonize negative gearing as a handout to the wealthy when that is simply not true. Scrapping negative gearing hurts everyone.

Rents will go up. This is a Labor attack on renters.

House prices will drop. This is a Labor attack on home owners.

and

The assistance for Mum and Dad investors will end. This is a Labor attack on the hundreds and thousands of Australians who invest in our property market.

Over 60% of those who utilise negative gearing have taxable incomes of $80,000 or less.

Andrew Leigh and Labor are trying to fool Australians into believing that their sledgehammer approach to the property market will have no negative effects. Australians shouldn’t be fooled.